Monday, January 8, 2018

Jewish Care Home accuses euthanasia doctor of sneaking in and killing a resident.

Alex SchadenbergExecutive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Louis Brier Care Home

An Orthodox Jewish Care Home filed a complaint against euthanasia doctor, Ellen Wiebe for sneaking into the Home and killing a resident, which is against the policy of the Louis Brier Home in Vancouver.

According to Susan Lazaruk, of the Vancouver Sun, the Jewish Home stated in its complaint that Wiebe's actions were “borderline unethical.” David Kesselman, CEO of the Louis Brier Home stated:

“It was hidden,”

“There’s no documentation. She came in and I don’t know who you are. You can tell me you’re a physician, you could tell me you’re an astronaut, how do I know?

Kesselman continued:

“Imagine the implications for our staff and our residents and their families,”

“We have a lot of Holocaust survivors. To have a doctor sneak in and kill someone without telling anyone. They’re going to feel like they’re at risk when you learn someone was sneaking in and killing someone.”

Kesselman explained that Wiebe was well aware of ethics policy of the home:

He said the home has a defined policy devised by an ethics committee that includes allowing its residents to have a MAiD assessment done at the home. But residents are transferred to a health-care facility for the procedure.

Wiebe said she did the assessment of the patient, whom she hadn’t treated previously, and spoke to his doctor before agreeing to attend at the home at 7 p.m. one day. She said it was done at night because she worked during the day. She denies she acted “unprofessionally.”

She said at some Catholic facilities, including St. Paul’s Hospital, outside doctors require visiting privileges to treat patients.

“I would not do it (administer MAiD at those facilities),” she said. “I would consider that unprofessional if I agreed not to do something and then went ahead and did it.”

Because there wasn’t the same requirement for physicians’ visiting privileges at Louis Brier, “I did not do anything unprofessional,” she said.

The college said in an email that complaints are private, but disciplinary actions are made public.

Wiebe said that after she assisted in the death, the care home and Vancouver Coastal Health met with her to have her promise not to carry out MAiD on its premises in future, which she said she wouldn’t agree to.